Eye-on-Retail Daily Tipsheet Archives

…Jeff Bezos: “I dance into the office every morning.” by Adam Lashinsky at Fortune. “Re: Washington Post purchase: “I would not have bought the Washington Post if it had been a financially upside-down salty-snack-food company,” he says…“This is the first company I’ve ever been involved with on a large scale that I didn’t build from scratch,” says Bezos. “I did no due diligence, and I did not negotiate with Don. I just accepted the number he proposed.”Read more

Discount grocery chain Aldi opens first eight Southern California stores by Shan Li at LA Times. “On Thursday, the Aldi store in Moreno Valley attracted a line of about 200 people eager to check out the newest grocer in town…Not everybody was impressed. Bent over the bagging area near checkout, Laurie Campbell, 63, said she didn’t like packing up her own groceries nor did she like the lack of name brands. “I won’t be back,” the Moreno Valley resident said. “They’re so disorganized.”Read more

Costco sets date for breakup with AmEx; Visa perks will be sweeter by John Ewoldt at Star Tribune. “…the warehouse club said Thursday that June 19 will be the last day that it will accept American Express credit cards.”Read more

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Company that gets called in to help Fortune 500’s respond to some of the world’s largest data breaches, is reeling from its own data breach via Krebs on Security. “Earlier this week, a prominent member of a closely guarded underground cybercrime forum posted a new thread advertising the sale of a database containing the contact information on some 1.5 million customers of Verizon Enterprise.”Read more

High Cost of Keeping Chocolate Cool Tempers Online Sales by Robbie Whelan at WSJ. “Hershey charges $6.95 to ship a $4.25 bag of Kisses ordered on its website. In a notice on the site, the Pennsylvania-based maker of Kit Kat and Reese’s also “strongly suggests” that customers buy liquid ice packs and a foam cooler for an additional $4.99. That, plus the recommended expedited shipping, would bring the cost to $20.20, before taxes.”Read more (subscription)

GameStop earnings show importance of electronics, collectibles sales by Korri Kezar at Dallas Business Journal. “Comparable store sales grew 3.1 percent for the quarter and 4.3 percent for the year.”Read more

Glucose Health pitched at Open Call – now heads to 1,800 Walmart stores by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “Fleming said the one stickler area that took the most work was getting the price down to Walmart’s level. “I wasn’t sure that we could do it. But we went back to our suppliers three times and we finally got the cost down to the range Walmart wanted.”Read more

Australia: Expert’s plan to combine Masters and Home Timber & Hardware gains steam by Catie Low at Sydney Morning Herald. “It’s believed Mr (Geoff) Dart has reached out to a number of investment banks to explore funding options for the acquisition and he’s already sounded out key management personnel.”Read more

Staples Judge Slams FTC on Amazon Testimony in Merger Case by David McLaughlin and Andrew M Harris at Bloomberg. “That’s why we were unwilling to say that,” the Amazon executive answered. “We weren’t sure if that was going to be true or not.” “Were you surprised that the government was telling you what to say and not say?” Sullivan said. “Yes,” Wilson replied, subsequently adding, “I was signing this thing, it was going to be factual.”Read more

10 LONG DAYS – Man forced to wear “I am a Thief” sign in front of Walmart to avoid jail time by The Columbus Dispatch. “A Girard Municipal Court judge found Davenport guilty. But he gave him the sentencing option of wearing a sign saying, “I am a thief. I stole from WalMart” or serving 30 days in jail. Davenport has to wear the sign in front of the store eight hours a day for 10 days of his choosing.”Read more